Before We Were Yours: A Novel (Unabridged)

More by Lisa Wingate

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  Before We Were Yours: A Novel (Unabridged)

  Lisa Wingate THE BLOCKBUSTER HIT—A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller
  
  For readers of Orphan Train and The Nightingale comes a “thought-provoking [and] complex tale about two families, two generations apart . . . based on a notorious true-life scandal.”*
  
  Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.
  
  Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.
  
  Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.
  
  *Library Journal
  
  Publishers Weekly’s #3 Longest-Running Bestseller of 2017 • Winner of the Southern Book Prize • If All Arkansas Read the Same Book Selection 
  
  “A [story] of a family lost and found . . . a poignant, engrossing tale about sibling love and the toll of secrets.”—People
  
  “Sure to be one of the most compelling books you pick up this year. . . . Wingate is a master-storyteller, and you’ll find yourself pulled along as she reveals the wake of terror and heartache that is Georgia Tann’s legacy.”—Parade
  
  “One of the year’s best books . . . It is impossible not to get swept up in this near-perfect novel.”—The Huffington Post

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  Good Hope Road (Unabridged)

  Lisa Wingate In a time of crisis, two women come together and set off down a road of hope in the second novel in the Tending Roses series, from the New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours.
  
  Twenty-one-year-old Jenilee Lane's dreams are as narrow as the sky is wide. She doesn't imagine any good could come out of the tornado that has ripped across the Missouri farmland where she's made her home. But some inner spark compels her to take action. To rescue her elderly neighbor, Eudora Gibson, from the cellar in which she's been trapped. To make her way to the nearby town of Poetry, where the townspeople have begun to gather in the only building left standing. To collect from the devastated landscape fragments of life that lie strewn about in the tornado's wake: letters, photographs, and mementos that might mean something to people who have lost everything.
  
  Eudora Gibson didn't think Jenilee had it in her. But the girl she's hardly noticed for years is now surprising her--stepping forward with a bravery that inspires Eudora to face her own bitter past. Brought close by tragedy, the two will learn lessons about the resilience of the human spirit and the ties that make a community strong. And together they will travel to a place that once lay beyond their dreams.

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  Tending Roses (Unabridged)

  Lisa Wingate From the New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a heartfelt novel about the bonds of family and the power of second chances.
  
  When Kate Bowman temporarily moves to her grandmother’s Missouri farm with her husband and baby son, she learns that the lessons that most enrich our lives often come unexpectedly. The family has given Kate the job of convincing Grandma Rose, who’s become increasingly stubborn and forgetful, to move off her beloved land and into a nursing home. But Kate knows such a change would break her grandmother’s heart.
   
  Just when Kate despairs of finding answers, she discovers her grandma’s journal. A beautiful handmade notebook, it is full of stories that celebrate the importance of family, friendship, and faith. Stories that make Kate see her life—and her grandmother—in a completely new way...

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  Never Say Never (Unabridged)

  Lisa Wingate From best-selling author Lisa Wingate comes Never Say Never, an enthralling blend of small-town charm and wholesome romance.
  
  Kai Miller has never put down roots and doesn’t intend to change. Yet when a hurricane evacuation brings her to Daily, Texas, she begins to reexamine her tumbleweed ways. After meeting Kemp Eldridge, she can almost see herself settling down—until her dreams are dashed when she hears he’s promised to another. But locals have learned to never say never—especially when Aunt Donnetta is cooking up a scheme.

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  The Sea Keeper's Daughters

  Lisa Wingate From modern-day Roanoke Island to the sweeping backdrop of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains and Roosevelt's WPA folklore writers, past and present intertwine to create an unexpected destiny.
  
  Restaurant owner Whitney Monroe is desperate to save her business from a hostile takeover. The inheritance of a decaying Gilded Age hotel on North Carolina's Outer Banks may provide just the ray of hope she needs. But things at the Excelsior are more complicated than they seem. Whitney's estranged stepfather is entrenched on the third floor, and the downstairs tenants are determined to save the historic building. Searching through years of stored family heirlooms may be Whitney's only hope of quick cash, but will the discovery of an old necklace and a Depression-era love story change everything?

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  The Prayer Box: A Novel

  Lisa Wingate A young woman, an old woman, and the story of a lifetime…
  
  When Iola Anne Poole, an old-timer on Hatteras Island, passes away in her bed at ninety-one, the struggling young mother in her rental cottage, Tandi Jo Reese, finds herself charged with the task of cleaning out Iola’s rambling Victorian house.
  
  Running from a messy, dangerous past, Tandi never expects to find more than a temporary hiding place within Iola’s walls, but everything changes with the discovery of eighty-one carefully decorated prayer boxes, one for each year, dating from Iola’s youth to her last days. Hidden in the boxes is the story of a lifetime, written on random bits of paper—the hopes and wishes, fears and thoughts of an unassuming but complex woman passing through the seasons of an extraordinary, unsung life filled with journeys of faith, observations on love, and one final lesson that could change everything.

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  The Story Keeper

  Lisa Wingate Successful New York editor Jen Gibbs is at the top of her game with her new position at Vida House Publishing—until a mysterious manuscript from an old slush pile appears on her desk. Turning the pages, Jen finds herself drawn into the life of Sarra, a mixed-race Melungeon girl trapped by dangerous men in turn-of-the-century Appalachia. A risky hunch may lead to The Story Keeper’s hidden origins and its unknown author, but when the trail turns toward the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a place Jen thought she’d left behind forever, the price of a blockbuster book deal may be higher than she’s willing to pay.

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  Blue Moon Bay

  Lisa Wingate Award-winning, best-selling crossover author Lisa Wingate pens inspirational Southern fiction that tugs the heartstrings. Blue Moon Bay takes Seattle architect Heather Hampton to quiet Moses Lake, Texas, where a promotion at her firm hinges on the sale of family farmland for a proposed industrial plant. Her plans hit a few snags thanks to her quirky family and a handsome banker opposing the land deal. It soon becomes clear that providence has other ideas for her future, and maybe this small town is the place where all her dreams come true.

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  Texas Cooking

  Lisa Wingate According to USA Today, best-selling author Lisa Wingate "dishes up fun and charm" with her touching romance novels. In Texas Cooking, Wingate tells the story of Colleen Collins, a big city reporter who thinks she's seen and heard it all until she visits the tiny town of San Saline. Listeners from all walks of life will relish this tale of passion, new beginnings, and the comforts of good food and good conversation.

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  Inden vi blev jeres

  Lisa Wingate Gennem tredive år kidnappede børnehjemsforstanderinden Georgia Tann fattige børn fra Sydstaterne og solgte dem til rige familier i hele USA. "Inden vi blev jeres" er en gribende roman baseret på denne skæbnesvangre og virkelige historie og er en bog til alle, der elskede "Sarahs nøgle" og "Pigen uden navn".
  
  En stormfuld aften i 1939 efterlader mr. Foss sine fem børn på familiens husbåd på Mississippi River for at haste på hospitalet med sin kone. Den tolvårige Rill er efterladt med ansvaret for sine mindre søskende, da fremmede dukker op og tvinger dem med sig. Med løftet om, at de snart vil få lov at vende hjem igen, overlades børnene til Georgia Tann og flytter ind på hendes børnehjem, hvor Rill kæmper for at holde søskendeflokken samlet.
  
  Godt 75 år senere kaldes Avery Stafford, som ellers har gang i en god karriere som anklager i Washington D.C, hjem til South Carolina, da hendes far har helbredsproblemer og har brug for at have hende ved sin side, mens han fører valgkamp som senator. Under et besøg på et lokalt plejehjem møder Avery en ældre dame, der er fast overbevist om, at hun kender hende, og Avery tvinges til at grave i sin egen families fortid for at finde ud af, om der virkelig er en forbindelse eller ej.